Best and worst of SmackDown Live: August 08, 2017

After a fairly decent episode of Raw, it was SmackDown Live's turn to entertain the fans assembled at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario. While the show was entertaining, it did not really feel like an episode leading into SummerSlam. There were some aspects of the show that delivered but a lot of it just felt a wee bit flat to us, honestly speaking. Let's examine the positives and the negatives, heading into the biggest show of the summer.

#1 Worst: Negligible build for the WWE Championship Match at Summerslam

WWE chose to rehash an old match instead, once more

All of social media was buzzing with the aftermath of Shinsuke Nakamura's big win over John Cena last week, and we thought we would kick off the program between The Maharaja and The Artis, this week. Instead, there was just a sit-down interview with Nakamura that did not specifically address Jinder Mahal and just spoke about Nakamura's 'dynasty' and whatnot, not really exciting us for the contest in two weeks.

This was the perfect opportunity to create some heat for a match that does not feel like a main event when compared to Raw's Fatal Four Way contest. This week will go down as a missed opportunity, in our books.

#1 Best: Better than the Punjabi Prison

Randy Orton seemed 'all guns blazing' this week, and had perhaps his best match with Jinder Mahal, through their entire program this summer. It was the best conclusion to their feud, and also told a story. It revealed that without his aides by his side, Jinder Mahal is easily beaten.

We also loved the ambush from Rusev at the end of the main event, building heat for Orton's own match against the Bulgarian. In all likelihood, this was maybe Jinder Mahal's best match as WWE Champion. We would have liked to have seen some interaction between Mahal and Nakamura, but this was a fairly decent consolation prize instead.

#2 Worst: Not quite your Indian hero?

It is 2017 and the audience knows that the colour of your skin does not determine which part of the world you're from. This week, we saw Jinder Mahal showered in adulation from the WWE Universe, as he made his way to the ring in Toronto, Canada.

This is because he is Canadian national, even though he is of Indian origin. We brought you a report recently about the failure of Mahal's reign in India, and that is primarily because the Indians fans know that he's actually Canadian.

#2 Best: The return of James Ellsworth

Believe it or not, we consider this a positive move

Very honestly speaking, with Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch removed from the main event picture, the Natalya-Naomi match is not really doing anything for us, right now. Even though the threat of Carmella looms high over the match, there's hardly any interest among the WWE Universe at large, in seeing the match between the two women. James Ellsworth has surprisingly become one of the best things about this feud and with his return, can add a whole new dimension to the said contest.

We are genuinely curious to see how Ellsworth plays a factor in the coming weeks. Somehow, he belongs to the women's division, just as much as the girls!

#3 Worst: The Lana/Tamina dynamic

We can't make any sense of this storyline

There's something brewing between Lana and Tamina but for the life of us, we cannot understand what it is. It does not help that Lana is absolutely awful in the ring and Tamina is terrible at cutting promos, making it impossible to focus on the storyline at hand. We cannot stress just how bad Tamina is at delivering her lines.

Tamina is way behind the rest of the SmackDown Live locker room when it comes to cutting coherent promos. A run in NXT would really benefit this woman immensely.

#3 Best: Arn vs. Tully

Fashion Peaks was an absolute riot, this week!

Growing up a wrestling fan, Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard were two of my favourite characters in professional wrestling. It was an absolute laugh riot to see Arn Anderson admitting that he decapitated Tully 'The Hobby Horse' because he was the real horseman.

Add the fact that Fandango was abducted by aliens, and this totally bizarre segment was, in many ways, the absolute highlight of the entire show. We don't know where this story is headed, much like the Lana/Tamina storyline, but we're enjoying this one far more than the other one!

#4 Best/Worst: New music

We liked one new theme, hated the other!

Baron Corbin had one of the better themes in the main roster, and we cannot understand why WWE would change it, ahead of his match against John Cena at Summerslam, in Brooklyn. His new theme seems underwhelming and does not create the same impact that his old one did!

The Usos now use a variation of their original theme and that seems like a slight improvement on their original tune. In any case, we are surprised that two themes were changed on the same night.

What surprises will occur on the go-home show before SummerSlam? Join us again next week to find out what lies in store.

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Edited by anirudh.b